Portraits: Actual and Imagined, in Bladenboro

I installed work today in BVAC Gallery, in nearby Bladenboro, North Carolina.  On display are portraits completed from 2002-2011, of fellow artists and friends from my years in Maine.  If you want to make a quick trip to this charming town, the show will be up through June 7th.  Regular gallery hours are 2-4pm, Saturday and Sunday, and all other times by appointment.  The show is sponsored by the Bladenboro Historical Society, so call ahead for an appointment or directions.

I will be attending an artist reception on Saturday, April 12, from 2-4pm.   Hope to see you there!

ArtFields, The Portraits

A week later, I'm finally getting around to posting some better images of the portraits by themselves.  All oil on canvas, 18 X 22 inches.

Best of Show, ArtFields Portrait Contest

Round One: A full house

Yesterday I had the honor of competing with 23 other artists in the 2013 Art Fields Portraits Contest.  Having never competed in any sort of live-head-to-head art competition, I had no idea of what to expect.   I also had not had the pleasure of visiting Lake City, South Carolina.  The competition was a very intense experience and I was pleasantly surprised by the charm of  both the town and the amazing organizational abilities of the Art Fields hosts and staff.  

Not being a plein air sort, I was quite anxious over having to paint outside.  By a great stroke of luck, the event was moved indoors to the Bean Market due to possibility of rain.  The indoor venue proved to be an excellent space for the contest, allowing plenty of room for the artists, models, and audience to roam around and view the work from the walkways above the main floor.  The event began promptly at ten with two artists paired to one local farmer acting as model. Each contestant then had only one hour to produce a full portrait to be judged by a panel of four jurors.

In the first round, I was set up at a long table in the center of the floor.   The room was already full of people directly involved with the event but also began to overflow with groups from the outside festival, who watched the artist from all sides.  My hand was actually shaking so bad as I began that I had to steady it with other fingers on the canvas.  It was quite an effort to shut out all the distraction and focus, but I had a great model.   The hour went quickly and the 24 artists were cut to 12 for round two.   My personal goal was to make past this initial selection so I was excited to move on to the next round.

Round Two, 12 Artists

Round two was a little easier going with half the floor clear. I could settle in and actually enjoy painting.  My model kept this fantastic smile going for the full hour that, though impossible to capture, lightened my mood considerably.    I even had time to reflect on the bizarreness of the event; it really felt like portraiture was becoming a sport with all the people watching and taking pictures.    I even heard the makings of stroke-by-stroke commentary as some onlookers were describing the finer points of artistic processes to their spouses.  

Round Three, Six Artists

By round three, there were only six artists and three models left.    I had brought a small assortment of toned canvases that I matched to each model as the round began.   My farmer's John Deere hat inspired me to go green this time.   While I didn't get the likeness, I was pretty satisfied with the resulting painting; after all, camo is pretty tough to paint!

Round Four, Three Artists

With only thirty minutes between rounds, I was pretty exhausted by the time the last portrait session began at 2:30.   It was down to the last three of us, and I switched to a red canvas that matched the skin tones of our final model.  Although I was concentrating rather hard on the model, I could feel all the people watching.   The earlier days hushed conversations gave now gave way to the dull roar of a party at full swing and it seemed like everyone had a camera.   For a brief moment, I felt like a professional athlete... 

  





At four, I was presented with the blue ribbon and declared the winner.  I was admittedly delirious by this point, so I would like to take the opportunity now to thank my hosts at Art Fields for creating such a cool event as well as give one more nod to all of the fine competitors.  Thanks to all my students at UNCP who helped me train in the last two weeks, and thanks to the support of my good friends Kate, Zack, and Amelia Wagner, Marsha Wiegand who cheered me on during the contest.    Of course, I cannot give enough thanks to my sweet wife Beata who keeps me going.   

North Carolina Museum of Art

Taxidermy!

Signed on for the UNCP field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art last Saturday, and finally got to tour a pretty great collection of art in Raleigh, NC.  As I might have mentioned before, I think very highly of museums that offer free admission to their permanent collection.  I certainly understand how small non-profit museums struggle to pay staff, but it is really a great thing when a state has enough vision to offer an opportunity to view the arts to the general public.  When I was growing up, my home city (Nashville is no small town), lacked a real art museum and my first exposure to art was from a [paid] traveling show that included a very nice late Monet waterlily painting.  Suffice to say it set me on my current path, showing me that art can have a real physical presence that no flat image from a book can fully describe.

I am thrilled to know that a great museum such as the North Carolina Museum of Art is so close to where I teach, and that is has a substantial collection of historical and contemporary works that includes major works by some of the biggest names in the textbooks.   To name a few, there's an excellent Anselm Kiefer, a few giant Motherwells, and even a Ribera.  It also boasts great works by North Carolina artists that easily stack with the rest.  There is also curiously large amount of Rodin casts in the West building, extending outside as pictured below.  I regret to say that I didn't have time to tour the grounds and surrounding sculpture park, but it's safe to say that I'll be back soon with my dog. 

Footnote to the taxidermy pic:  I was thinking something like "North Carolina spreads its wings," or state that NCMU simply has everything, but readers should note that I simply love taxidermy and actively seek it out. (I'm also fairly certain that most of it isn't copyrighted.) My nose led to this one in a relatvely tiny Audubon diversion currently on display in the East building.  If anyone want to donate any fine specimens, I guarantee it will work its way into a painting someday...

Anselm Kiefer rocks

Lamb of God, literally

More Rodins than you can shake a stick at

In Training: Aimee

 

In my third portrait of the day, I finally choked.   The likeness wasn't coming together by the half hour and I quickly fell behind with corrections.  I didn't even have a chance to get to the hair before the bell!  If this was the real deal competition, I don't think I would have passed elimination with this result.  Above is where I was at at the one hour point.

 

Ah well, I wasn't going to let a little failure from stopping me from making a decent painting today.   This is the result of an extra twenty minutes that I won't have next Saturday.  I will have some serious trouble if my model has long hair and soft features.  

In Training: Aaron

 

When Aaron took the chair, I said I would try to make him look all Game Thrones in honor of his great hair.   Too tall an order without inventing props-- but not too bad a portrait otherwise. The beard was definitely a challenge.   Also, I realized a lot of my models have been strolling in with green shirts....      

In Training: Darlene

Day two of my portrait training went fairly well.   End of the semester and students are getting sick.  I had two cancellations, so one of my coworkers, Darlene, agreed to sit for 45 minutes.   After my good day last Friday, I was arrogant enough to think I could trim off a few minutes... 

I forgot how much easier is for me to paint men rather than women.    My natural manner of working involves a lot of short choppy brush strokes that exaggerates light and dark planes over smooth, careful, rounding of forms.   Most guys don't mind if they end up looking a but older and more rugged; let's just say the effect is less pleasing for women.   Attempting a measure of blending took an extra five minutes.  Also, Darlene obviously takes a lot of care with her hair, and I wanted to do it justice.   Ten more minutes gone.   I wasn't nearly finished as planned, so I conscripted her for the full hour and got this result.

Another annoying thing about portraits-- did I mention people tend to expect a likeness?  Other artists are far more forgiving than the general public--who tend to expect photographic results.   While painting, I imagined that the Farmers and onlookers at ArtFields could be a very rough crowd indeed.  I was more than a little anxious to see how Darlene would react to the process, but she was a very good sport.   I guess all those years around artists had her a better prepared.   I'll post the other two results over the weekend, and I plan on doing a couple of more to stay warmed up before the big day.